The report examines new ways of paying for new and costly medicines as a means to finding solutions for the ever-increasing prices of new pharmaceutical treatments. The panel does not shy away from exploring hot-button topics such as the need for greater transparency in medicines pricing, R&D and marketing cost, enlisting competition authorities to investigate drug pricing, ‘orphanisation’ of new medicines, revisiting the patent and market exclusivity as a cornerstone of innovation, developing alternative paths for innovation financing based on delinkage principles such as prize awards and the question how to ensure a ‘public return on public investment’. It further explores ways to bolster negotiating power of governments in price negotiations, including through the use of compulsory licensing of medicines patents.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has been a constant advocate for the promotion of taxation on sugary beverages in order to combat the rise of non-communicabe diseases (NCDs). In January 2014, the Mexican government enacted a law with a taxation rate of 10%, an increase of one peso, on sugary beverages. At the time, 32.8% of the Mexican population was obese, and the country was considered to have the largest obesity rate in the world, according to the United Nation’s Food and Agricultural Organization. Studies show that Mexico’s sugar tax led to a continuous decrease in consumption seen within its first two years of implementation. This raises the question: To what extent would it be effective to implement taxation on sugary beverages as seen in Mexico in 2014, within the Netherlands?

Summary in English: The Dutch civil servants pension fund ABP continues to invest in the tobacco industry. This contribution looks at these investments from the perspective of international law, in particular the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and human rights law.

This edited volume is directed at experts in international law, practitioners in international institutions, and other experts who would like to familiarize themselves with the legal framework of infectious disease governance. Using the West African Ebola crisis of 2014 as a case study, this book is part of a larger collaborative project on international health governance.

As there is a persistent risk of the occurrence of infectious disease epidemics and pandemics, it is all the more important to frame the underlying mechanisms, legal and otherwise, to deal with such problems. The aim of the book is thus to critically contribute to the ongoing debates related to instruments such as the International Health Regulations, as well as the role of international organizations such as the World Health Organization.

Against this backdrop, the authors explain the context and substantive legal framework of the Ebola crisis, while also highlighting its human rights aspects, institutional law (such as the debate on the securitization of health) and the limits to a purely legal approach to the subject. Thus, the authors herein come from various backgrounds such as law, public health, political science and anthropology.

NRC Handelsblad’s Saturday 25 November issue contains an entry of eleven pages entirely devoted to sugar. It discusses a broad range of topics related to sugar, including the role of sugar throughout the centuries, sugar consumption in the Netherlands, the amount of sugar in bread, and sugar production. Several scientists are quoted in an attempt to rebut the increasing scientific claim that sugar consumption causes overweight and obesity. A closer look at this entry shows that it is in fact an advertisement from Royal Cosun, an agro-industrial concern of the Dutch sugar beet producers. Given the neutral presentation of the entry, the reader is easily confused and misled about its content. How much leeway should the industry be given in promoting its products in a newspaper?

RECOMMENDED WEBSITES

Disclaimer

Global Health Law Groningen publishes posts that are thought-provoking and might therefore be controversial. The views expressed in the posts are the ones of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by Global Health Law Groningen.

Contact us

If you would like to write a guest post or have any other questions regarding the blog please contact the editors Veronika Flegar and Yi Zhang at ghlgblog@gmail.com.